Hi everyone,
Having a tricky manager issue and seeking advice. I’ve been working in a digital role for a few months, and am being managed by a person who is on maternity cover.
Manager has been inconsistent since day 1 - they have also admitted to having ADHD. They frequently miss emails, miss reviews (I work in design), and reschedule or cancels meetings at the last minute. They once cried and shouted at me in a 1-to-1. I have basically managed upwards since day 1, even to the point where I had to advise on the legal process around flexible work requests after the negated to respond to mine.
All of this would be fine, as I know manager is overloaded, but they have now extended my probation. They also sent a completely different set of objectives weeks before my probation was set to end.
All of the work based objectives are fine and I have clearly shown I am capable, but they are continually resetting some of them around ‘accepting feedback’ and in person meetings, which I have always prioritised. It almost feels like if I try and disagree on something they put this down to my ability to accept feedback, despite my who job being focussed around responding to clients feedback on my design work (!). They even negatively fed back on my missing their client meeting which they had booked at the last minute, which I’d missed after they cancelled my probation meeting (for a 2nd time) and which wasn’t even in my calendar.
What do I do? I’m already applying for jobs, as even writing this I recognise how insane it is, and have had interest from recruiters. It just feels very stressful and bad for my mental health.
The manager in question has also put a colleague on probation and seems to be managing them out. I have flagged some of the issues to a senior manager who has organised a meeting between us - do I tell the truth? I am almost past caring as can’t really deal with this level of stress, and have accepted I will almost definitely need to move on.